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In December there was a prisoner exchange between the Republics and Ukraine. Among them was Petya who’s been in captivity for about 2 years. He and his wife Ira and thee kids lived in the village of Zolotoye-4. Near Pervomaysk, but on the Ukrainian side. Petya joined the militia: “When they started to kill us from aircraft–we all knew who was doing it, saw the planes, and I couldn’t just sit at home.” Several of their neighbors perished right in front of them. Died on the spot.
Petya’s parents and sister left for Western Ukraine 8 years earlier. When the Donbass was bombed, before Petya joined the militia he called them. Called to hear the voices of relatives, hear words of support, share the shock of what he saw–it was impossible to accept and understand what just happened. Nobody could believe what was happening–aircraft, and bombs falling onto ordinary homes. His own mother told him: “It’s your own fault.” Then he called the sister, who answered: “What did mother tell you? She was right, don’t call us anymore.”
They’ve had no contact since. An ordinary story–there are hundreds of such relations, people who refuse to believe what the relatives from Donbass say, who don’t want to hear anything and who believe that “it’s their own fault.”
Dear God, how many times have I heard these words…How many times…

Our friends. That’s what we call them–“survivors of captivity.”
Things are improving. The whole family has passports, and not without our help. I’m glad this blog contains not only sad stories but also positive ones, when one has something to smile about or be proud of. I’m glad you and us were to help this family.
All the documents, and all of their lives, remained over there, in Ukraine. Where both husband and wife have arrest warrants for “separatism.” There is no way back for them. Everything–their property and belongings, elderly parents, relatives, is back there. But they don’t have any contact with anyone anymore, “so that nobody is placed in danger.”
They went through a grinder. Vitaliy spent a long time in captivity in Ukraine where he had all of his teeth knocked out and was badly injured. Natasha and her son was in hiding until they managed to escape into LPR where they finally were able to relax. Vitaliy was in the militia from the start. Natasha helped organized the referendum in Rubezhnoye. It’s a miracle they were able to hide. They went from apartment to apartment for months, unable to even go out to shop…
Now they live in a Lugansk dorm. Their son has improved, the problem was in poor nutrition of the whole family. He’s had several hunger-induced blackouts, nervous system issues, and serious headaches.

Here is another post about our friends from Rubezhnoye. Who survived captivity in Ukraine.
How are things? It depends.
But the main thing that makes our team happy is that the boy, their son, now feels fine at last.
His fainting spells passed. As did the headaches.
They visited every conceivable doctor, including a dentist. I think it was not a matter of diagnosis and treatment.
The boy simply needed decent food which the family could not afford.
Calm and, of course, the parents who do not fear tomorrow…

Iosif Yuryevich has been disabled since childhood.
No family. No apartment. Or, already no apartment.
He’s from Pervomaysk. That same LPR Pervomaysk.
In August ’14 Yosif Yuryevich left for Kharkov.
He was in Ukraine until spring ’17.
Then he returned.
Returned to Pervomaysk, which is on the line of separation.
To the city on the very edges of continued fighting.

The top floor of the dorm. A tiny room full of beds.
A slender boy with welts under his eyes, wizened woman with a straight back and beautiful hair, and the unbearably thin Vitaliy, holding a napkin to his mouth
–May I hug you?
That’s the first thing I heard Natasha say when we met.
We had a long conversation.
It defies description.
It defies transmission.

Vitaliy and his family lost everything. Yet they were among the first who stood up to defend what they believed in. Vitaliy joined the militia in the spring of 2014. Now they are without home and without health. Their son has been constantly losing consciousness after he and his mother were kept in a cellar for a whole day by the SBU, having to hold their hands over their heads. After captivity, and after Natasha and their son spent six months in hiding, the family has made it to Lugansk. But their house is “over there.”
We wrote about them recently, and that post really resonated. I’m glad that because of that response we were able to help them. And we continue to do so. Zhenya and Lena have done a ton of work. They take them to hospitals, clinics. As of right now, the matter of passports is moving forward, and they should be issued in near future.
Vitaliy may even manage to get work (the process is ongoing).
But the main thing is that now they have hope. They were deeply depressed when we first met them.
They didn’t expect help. So many journalists photographed and wrote about them. But no aid followed.
I want to thank once again all of our people. Thank you for the responses, for comments, and especially for the money that you contributed for this family. I am at a loss for words. Thank You!
Zhenya, who’s been seeing this family the whole month, said this: “Dunya, they are finally smiling. That’s a lot.”

The post on militiawoman Oksana, who remained alone in strange Lugansk, with no documents, with a baby, got on to some Odessa forum. Then I found myself under attack for users of that forum. I couldn’t keep up with banning people and deleting posts. I think this is a particularly patriotic Ukrainian method to attract the inhabitants of Crimea and Donbass back into the fold. So that they once and for all realize they were wrong to want to leave and that it’s time for them to go back. To their Motherland. Where they are loved and awaited.

This is a truly special and flawless method, to wish them death, painful death. Death to them, their children, their parents. Simply because they were born there. They had the temerity to vote. The temerity to disagree. And one shouldn’t say these are just trolls and bots, though they are in evidence. This harassment is often the work of perfectly real people, with education, credentials, and even brains. Some of them I even know in person. This is dumb, my dear hurrah-patriots of The Independent One. You don’t understand, or perhaps understand all too well, that if you treat someone like crap and argue they are worthy of death simply because they don’t agree with you, they–those you treat like crap–will never sit with you on the same bench. Never speak to you, never live under the same roof. But you couldn’t care less about the people, whether they want to return or not. You want the land. And people? What people?

Such dirtballs are rare guests on my blog. I forgot what sewage they are capable of spewing until once again I saw young “patriotic” guys wish a painful death to a young girl who was not afraid to defend their ideas with action. There are no more rotten people than such patriotic internet nothingness which can only write about something from afar. One doesn’t have to support the idea of Novorossia, one can have entirely different ideas, but such comments simply kill any possible dialogue between the warring sides. And there are too many of them.

And I’m glad that I’m being read by responsive and caring people, people of action. Thanks to all who responded to my post about this young militiawoman.

Oksana was one of those girls who back then, in 2014, were in the first ranks of Donbass independence defenders.
Her house remained on the other side. In Ukraine, in Kramatorsk…
The girl fought, participated in the liberation of Chernukhino. Blew up on a mine with her vehicle. The driver was torn to bits, another soldier lost an arm. She suffered a spine injury. She was taken to Rostov for surgery, had plates inserted.
Now she lives in Lugansk. Her house is where charges for “terrorism” and “separatism” are awaiting her. Her mother was held prisoner in a cellar for three days, after she tried to recreate her daughter’s documents and send them to her…

On April 6, 2014, Vitaliy liberated the SBU building. It was a famous event, but few realize what happened with many of these first “separatists” who remained “there”–in Ukraine.
This is a story about a family from the city of Rubezhnoye, which is now on the other side of the line. Vitaliy’s wife Natasha together with other activists organized a referendum while he was in Lugansk in the spring of 2014.
After the June 22 assault on Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, Vitaliy evacuated families and children from the city, but did not manage to evacuate his own. Then hell began.
When UAF entered Rubezhnoye someone, as often happens in such cases, reported him as a “separatist.” They swept him up right away. I have friends in Rubezhnoye and Severodonets, I know from them that people are afraid to show in any way what they think about Ukraine’s government. If you ask people on the street, they won’t say anything. And then some inspired journalist from Moscow Echo writes that everyone is grateful for the “liberation”…
They and others were thrown into a cellar where they, including children, were kept for six hours sitting on the floor with their hands on their heads. Natasha was hit on the head with a rifle butt, she still has severe headaches and her broken hand still doesn’t function well. Vladislav, the boy on the photos, passes out every day.
Whenever someone knocks on the door, he falls to the floor and covers his head.

Once upon a time had a chat with a liberally-minded friend. It took place before all the Maidans and Crimeas. We were talking about mutual aid and about the flood in Krymsk. The friend then uttered a phrase which cut to the quick.
In the US, where there was yet another tornado, people came from all over the country to help, brought clothes, money, food. They put people up in their homes. The friend said that our people are not like that. Here it’s everyone for himself.Continue reading →